Setting up Camera Raw

In this movie, I'd like to talk about settingup the Camera Raw preferences, or set up characteristics.So that you're all prepared to use those imagesonce you're done applying your adjustments inside of Camera Raw.So, let's go ahead, through the Bridge interface and access Camera Raw.Notice this is a .cr2 file.And that's what Camera Raw's really initially andprimarily made for is working on RAW files.Although, you canwork on TIF and JPEG but it's reallythe RAW file format where Camera Raw really excels.

So what we're going to do is and I'm going toshow you two ways to open up this file first of all.Notice, if I just double-click on this CameraRaw file it takes me immediately into Photoshop.Photoshop becomes active and you're in the Camera Raw interface.Now I'm just going to cancel to get out of that.All right and I'm going togo back to Adobe Bridge and I'm going to right-click, all right?Or control-click if you're working on a Macintoshand I'm going to choose Open in Camera Raw.Now watch the difference.When I go to open in Camera Raw, do you see how Bridge stays active here?There's a version of Camera Raw built right into Bridge.

And the reason for this is, if, let's say you wanted to do somethinghere and maybe have multiple images you were working on a Bridge.And, you wanted to be able to go back to Photoshopand work on another image in Photoshop at the same time.Let's say you had 20 images that you were workingon here and then you were going to save them out.It was going to take a few minutes.All right, by working on the Bridge version of Camera Raw, you could click theSave dialogue box, which I'll show you how to set up in just a moment.And then just go right over to Photoshop and keep working on another image.So they, actually two different ways to get into this Camera Raw dialog box.

All right, so whichever way you choose to get into the Camera Raw dialog box.Notice this is where the editing is going to takeplace and we're not going to talk about that right now.But I want to talk about setting up Camera Raw todeliver images the way you want them, in terms of color.So, there are two different ways to actually kind of exportimages from Camera Raw and remember, as we talked about earlier,is that Camera Raw by itself is inherently nondestructive.That is, anything you apply over here in any ofthe editing panels is not really applied to the image.It is only applied to the preview.

The adjustments that you apply over here don't actually apply to the image untilyou export them, save them out or open them in Photoshop, from this dialogue box.So, to get your images set up first thing you'll want to do is clickdown here.Notice, this is kind of underscored as you see here kind of like a hyperlink.If you click on this it actually takes you to this Workflow Options dialog box.Couple of things that you want to pay attention to hereis first of all, what color space are you working in.

And very often you're moving from the CameraRaw dialog box into the Photoshop dialog box.My very strong suggestion is youwant to get three dialog boxes in terms of color space set up the same.Set your camera, Kimera in Photoshop all setup to work in exactly the same color space.You know, a lot of digital cameras, by default, are set up in SRGB.My suggestion is get a camera that you can adjustthat and set for at least for Adobe RGB 1998.

If you're a professional photographer and you're working with wide gamutoutput devices and you're capturing very bright colors.Particularly say if you're doing product photography, youmay even want to assign the ProPhoto RGB.My strong recommendation is to get out of the sRGB and assign Adobe RGB 1998.In the camber when you capture your image and then set it up here.When you're setting up Camera Raw, as we are now.And then we when go to set up Photoshop we'll do the same thing there.So remember,these are things that are going to be appliedto your image, while you're working on your file.

But particularly on your output of the file from Camera Raw.All right, so that's the first thing.Second thing is you want to set the bit depth.Either 16 bits per pixel or eight.One of the advantages of working in Camera Raw andworking with raw files off of a camera, is thatunlike a JPEG or even a TIF that sometimes comeoff a camera, which is only 8 bits a channel.CameraRaw files have 16 bits of data in there, so there's a lot of data.So which way do you go?Well, it kind of depends, is, remember a 16-bit fileis going to be twice the size of an 8-bit file.

So if you're going to pay that kind of overheadin terms of file size, there should be a reason.If your intention is to do a lot ofimage editing in Photoshop, in particular, a lot ofselections and moving pixels around Then maybe saving itup in 16 bit mode is a good idea.Otherwise, if you're notgoing to do a lot in Photoshop and you're primarily going to print or export toPDF or Web, then perhaps 8-bits per channel is going to be just fine for you.So, lots of editing, Maybe you want to work in 16-bit, but if you'renot going to be doing a lot, then maybe 8-bits per channel is just fine.By the way, there are some printing devicesthat now can handle 16 bits per channel.

And if you have one of those printingdevices, my suggestion is, go ahead run some tests.Using some imagesthat you typically print and print 16-bit and 8-bit files usingthe editing you typically use and see if there's any discernible difference.If not, stick with 8-bits per output.I'm going to save this out of 16-bits just to kind of show you the process here.Okay, then image size is that you'lltypically just want to use the default image size.Some types of RAW files and versions of RAW will give you different dimensions.

Some of which,by the way, will actually increase the numberof pixels through interpolation, which I don't recommend here.So, this is by default a ten megapixel file.All right?So, that's typically the way you'll want to save it out.If you do want RAW to deliver a smaller dimension image, you can choose Resizeto Fit and then you can choose the width and height pixels that you want.If you know what your maximum dimension is sayit's, you know, 2,000 pixels that you want.You can just put 2,000 pixels in both ofthese and then the maximum dimension will be that.

And notice that you can choose width and heightor you can use dimensions long side, short side.So if you choose long side and thenput the maximum number of pixels that you want,if it's a portrait image like this, it'llgive you a 2,000 pixel image on the portrait.If its landscape it'll give you 2,000 pixels on the landscape end,on the long end.So that's kind of easy way not to make any mistakes.Then you can set your dimensional resolution, thisis very handy, and if you primarily areworking in the web, set this at 72 or 96 depending upon what you typically use.

If you're working an output for inkjetprinters somewhere in the 200-300 pixel range.I typically export mine at 240 because I'm outputtingto a wide gambit absent inkjet and 240 givesme plenty of detail, plenty of pixels.If you are using commercial print than 300 pixels per inch.All right so, set this up for the dimensions thatyou want the resolutions in terms of dimensions and linear resolution.Finally down here at output for sharpening, when you openan image in Photoshop do you want it to be sharpened?Are you ready to go to output? I rarely if ever use this.

In very few cases where I am doing this. Sometimes, if I'm doing all ofmy editing here like maybe on some product photography sharp and I'm just doinga little bit of touch-up cause all of the lighting is just about right.I may sharpen all right and notice you can choose screenglossy matte paper and then the amount of sharpening that you want.But I typically don't do this.I typically, if I going to sharpen in Camera Raw,I actually use the Sharpening dialog box over here.Gives me much more control. But it's up to you.It's kind of a shortcut.And depending on the quality of thesharpening, the amount of control that you want.

And then finally, you can open your images when you open them in Photoshop.By checking this check box right here, it'll openit up as a Smart Object, inside of Photoshop.All right, so for now, we're going to set our Adobe RGB 16-bits, and we're going togo ahead and take this off and we'rejust going to go with the default, ten megapixel.And that gives usthe dimensional resolution that came off the camera.And then say, 300 pixels per inch.And then click OK. Now when I choose Open Image,that's what gets opened inside of Photoshop.

So notice for instance that when I go underneathImage and Mode, it's giving me an RGB 16-bit image.When I choose the Edit menu and I come down hereto Assign Profile, Notice, it's assigned a profile of Adobe RGB 1998.All right, so everything that we set up in that dialog box is what happens.Okay, so that's preparing the file for when you want to go to Openinside of Camera Raw.If, on the other hand, we do this, and in this case, we'lljust go ahead and open up inside of the Photoshop Camera Raw dialog box.

If you want to save the image instead of Open it when you,set this here, that's what you get when you click Open here.When you click Save the image, you can do thesame kind of thing but you have a few more options here.You can, name your image, you can rename your image andthis is very handy if you're doing multiple images outside of Raw.You can choose a wider variety of formats.Including the DNG, the digital negative format, which is kind of a genericversion of Camera Raw or you can save it as TIF or JPEG.Typically I'm going to Photoshop.

And then you can choose all your meta-data.Again, you can choose your color space, your bit depth,you know, and then your image resize down here again.Which is similar to the dialog box we justlooked at and whether you want to sharpen or not.And again, whether you want to sharpen or not here, depends onhow much control you want over your image in terms of sharpening.And if you intend to more editing inPhotoshop and not just print out of Photoshop,then you don't want to sharpen here, ifyou're going to be applying more sharpening later on.So, this is the Save As dialog box and that'swhat you check to save images rather than open them.

And this is most handy whenyou've got, say, multiple images that you've opened up inside of CameraRaw and that you want to just select them and save them all out.And that's when you, rather than the Photoshop CameraRaw, you want to be in the Bridge Camera Raw.So there we go.There's setting up Camera Raw for doing your color correction.So that you know when you export and open, that you're going to begetting the, color that you want, set up the way you want it.Remember very critically, make sure you have the same color profile andthe, a good general one to have is Adobe RGB camera, Kimera and Photoshop.

Resume Transcript Auto-Scroll

Author

Released

2/12/2014

Sit down and strap in for an extended deep dive into the mysterious world of advanced color correction in Adobe Photoshop. This special installment of Photoshop Color Correction shows you the workflow, toolset, settings, and techniques you'll need to address advanced color challenges. Taz Tally covers how to quickly evaluate and adjust color using nondestructive editing tools and techniques and how to improve your workflow speed using keyboard shortcuts, preferences, and tool settings, and explains how grayscale, neutrals, and skin tone values play into color correction. Then you'll learn how to evaluate, measure, and correct color in different photographs, from landscapes to portraits, using Curves, adjustment layers, grayscale targets, layer masks, and Smart Filters. The last chapter details how to proof, sharpen, and export your corrected files.